Make a Wish
by Ponderess
Summary: 'There's this old tradition,' Hange explains [...], 'where you blow out a candle on your birthday and make a wish.' She picks up a candle from the table Eren didn't notice before and turns towards him. The flame flickers from the movement as she presents it to him. 'Make a wish,' she smiles. [oneshot, hints of Eren/Levi]


**Make a Wish**

'Good morning, Eren, rise and shine!'

Squad Leader Hange bursts into the room without knocking as usual. The sound of the door being pushed open rashly and her cheery sing-sang rip Eren out of his sleep. He reacts instinctively, grumbling sleepily and pulling the covers over his head to protect his eyes from the bright light as the curtains are being drawn open.

'Huh, what's the matter with you?'

Hange halts next to his bed and tugs at his bed sheets. Eren grumbles again, but lets her uncover his head.

'We did an extra run yesterday, can't I sit out today?' he whines.

Ever since his official allowance into the Survey Corps despite the failure of the 57th mission beyond the walls, he spent long, tiresome hours with Hange's squad to train and improve the use of his titan form. It was deemed necessary before any further advances to retake Wall Maria are made.

Like this over half a year passed – Eren can't really say for sure how long it's been, he has lost track of time actually. The change of season got noticed only vaguely. Though he has improved a lot over the time, having recently started to do two transformations a day wears him out and he drops dead into his bed every night. Yesterday Hange urged him to push past his limits yet again and he just wants to sleep for a whole day to recover.

Eren looks up at the squad leader whose eccentricity usually doesn't bother him, but in his exhausted state her excitement is just a bit too much. Words are still hard to form so shortly after waking, so he just blinks at her sleepily, hoping it's enough for her to pick up on.

Hange's cheery expression makes way for puzzlement. It seems like this is not the reaction she expected from the young recruit.

'Don't you know what today is?' she wonders in surprise.

Eren turns around and presses his head into the pillow.

'Did you come up with a new training method you want to try today?' he asks in reply, voice muffled by the fabric on his mouth.

The squad leader gives a hearty laugh.

'Oh boy,' she comments with another laugh. 'Just get dressed and come to the mess hall. You won't need your 3DMG today, so don't bother putting on your belt.'

Ignoring another groan she strides out of the room and lets the door fall shut behind her. The loud noise of wood colliding with wood is enough to wake Eren up entirely. Though he really doesn't want to, he gets out of bed. He's not in the position to oppose Hange's instructions.

A while later he is on his way to the mess hall. He only took the time to splash a handful of water in his face and left off the full-body-belt for the 3DMG as suggested. He isn't very keen to find out what Hange has in store for him today. Sure, he likes her – he respects actually – but that doesn't prevent him from fearing her eccentricity sometimes. And today he just isn't up for experiments.

With a sense of dread Eren opens the door to the mess hall. However none of the ideas he played with on his way here could've prepared him for what is expecting him now.

'Surprise!' Hange cheers with the widest smile yet.

Eren has stopped in his tracks and gapes at the scene. The whole squad is assembled in the room, smiling at him. In the centre of the semicircle formation stands their leader with her arms spread wide.

'Happy birthday, Eren!' she calls out, almost drowning out the others who join into the choir of congratulations.

The young recruit is at a loss of words. Is it really today? He hasn't celebrated his birthday in years and he wasn't even aware that it's already March. Time sure went by faster than he would've thought. But most of all he's surprised that his comrades from the Survey Corps who are stationed with him in the old headquarters for his training even bother with it.

'Aww look, he's speechless,' Hange notes delightedly.

She comes over to him and wrapping her arm around his neck she drags him over to one of the nearest tables. On it Eren can make out something round that looks suspiciously like it spent too much time in the oven judging from the dark brown tone. The smell of warm apples fills his nose.

His suspicions are being confirmed by Hange as she talks on. She hopes he doesn't mind his apple pie baked a bit too well, she mentions apologetically. Eren listens only with half an ear as he scans the present soldiers. Captain Levi is not among them. A little disappointed he wonders what the man is doing right now.

'There's this old tradition,' Hange explains, regaining his attention as she lets go of him and steps closer to the table, 'where you blow out a candle on your birthday and make a wish.'

She picks up a candle from the table Eren didn't notice before and turns towards him. The flame flickers from the movement as she presents it to him.

'Make a wish,' she smiles.

'What?'

Eren was never one to make wishes. He had and still has ambitions that he is willing to work for, but he doesn't wish for things that are impossible or unlikely to come true. And if "wish" means something he desires then he isn't very comfortable with the idea to have about twenty people in the room that can hear him. So he just looks at the squad leader perplexedly.

But of course the woman stays persistent. She holds the candle invitingly in front of him.

'Blow out the candle and make a wish,' she instructs. 'But don't tell anyone – that's supposed to be bad luck.' Her last words are accompanied with a wink.

So you make the wish silently, Eren realises. That is something different. He could arrange with that.

'I'm pretty sure though, the candle is supposed to be on the cake,' Moblit argues – probably not for the first time. But Hange simply ignores him – like she does so often when he has an objection – and Eren can't help but think that the thick candle in her hands would look strange on the almost burnt apple pie. So he can't imagine that's how things should go. But what does he know.

'Come on, go for it!' Hange urges him and Eren gives in.

Drawing in a breath he closes his eyes. As he lets it all out again in one long stream of air that hopefully extinguishes the flame he's thinking of the first thing that comes to mind.

He could've wished for anything, possible or not – finding answers in his basement, defeating the titans, something obvious like that. Instead he thinks of something rather simple, yet very telling: he wishes the captain was here for his birthday.

A little embarrassed by his own thoughts he opens his eyes again. The candle is out and Hange places it back on the table, still smiling. She cheers and claps her hands and with a little urging of her wandering gaze the whole squad joins in, making Eren actually blush.

'Now then,' Hange finally says, 'your guests should be here soon.'

'Guests?' he asks, having a hard time keeping up with her.

As it turns out, Hange has arranged for Armin and Mikasa to come over to the old headquarters and they get to spend the whole day together. Talking with them, just simply being with them makes Eren feel the closest to carefree in a very long time.

The day goes by fast and Armin and Mikasa have to leave again far too soon. To Eren's dismay they can't stay for dinner, because they have to get back to the official headquarters of the Survey Corps. But still he is glad that they could come at all.

In exchange the Captain is back for dinner. No one talks about where he was and Eren wonders only silently. He didn't see him all day. And now Levi sits at another table and pays the boy no attention. Eren's heart throbs a little, but he got his wish: Levi showed up on his birthday after all.

Gradually the mess hall is emptying. Eren dragged out the process of eating for as long as possible, stealing secret glances at the Captain who is now drinking his usual tea after finishing his meal. But he has finished his plate now and can no longer draw out his stay without making it absolutely obvious.

Apart from Levi he is the last to get up. The legs of his chair scrap across the stone tiles as he pushes it back and rises to his feet.

'Hey Eren.'

Eren's heart misses a beat at the sound of his name in the Captains voice. He turns towards the man, letting go of the plate he was about to pick up. Levi isn't looking at him, his eyes a staring straight ahead.

'Yes?' Eren asks. He stopped being overly formal with his superior a while ago. The Captain, though playing by the rules and knowing his place in the hierarchy of the military, doesn't need his soldiers to be exorbitantly correct with him. From what he has learned about the man, Eren figures it fits his personality.

After a moment of silence in which the boy hasn't moved, Levi glances at him.

'I thought we had established that I don't bite,' he notes, much to Eren's confusion.

'Huh?'

'Are you scared of me or why are you keeping your distance when I'm talking to you? Get the hell over here! I don't want to shout through the whole room.'

'Right,' Eren mumbles and gets into motion. His heart is beating nervously in his chest as he approaches the Captain. It's different from the beginning when he was intimidated by the man. He still is to some extent, but something else is playing into it now.

Maybe it's just a silly infatuation based on little knowledge and a lot of fantasy. But since he got to know Levi better, Eren has become strangely enamoured with him. He saw glimpses of the man behind the indifferent mask, the man who cares. And it makes him wonder. What happened to Levi that he hides away his feelings at all time? And who takes care of him, if he lets no one?

As he slides into the seat to the Captain's right, Eren hopes his nervousness isn't written all over him. When your heart beats unusually fast you get paranoid that everyone notices – or at least a sharp man like Levi picks up on it. But so far Eren seems to have gotten away with it somehow.

'How was your day?' the Captain asks him. He has reassumed his staring at the opposite wall.

'Good,' Eren replies, finding his voice more easily than expected.

Levi simply nods and Eren wonders if that was all he wanted to know. It seems hardly a conversation worth to take a seat for. And it definitely is awkward. At least to him, the Captain doesn't seem to experience the sensation of feeling awkward from what he can tell.

'Hange-san made me blow out a candle and wish for something.'

Eren gives a short laugh. He has no idea why he just said that. Probably to fill the silence. And because in his memory Levi's name will forever be written over that moment he blew out the flickering flame.

'Do you believe in these kinds of things?' As always, the Captain's tone sounds impassive – almost bored even – while he's still simply looking ahead. There's no way of telling what he thinks of it, but Eren doubts he regards things like this highly.

'I don't know, not really,' he states truthfully. 'But my wish came true, so I'm not complaining.'

For a moment Eren thinks he can make out the hint of a smile on Levi's lips. But it's gone too soon to be sure. Probably it was just his wishful thinking that the Captain would be happy for him.

'That's good,' the man comments after a moment.

This definitely isn't the product of wishful thinking, but the interpretation of these simple words can easily fall victim to it again. Silence engulfs them as Eren tries not to get carried away with it. He tries to convince himself that there is no deeper meaning to the comment. But it's really hard when he's so desperate for a sign of affection from the man.

Eren can tell the conversation is over and it's time for him to go. He gets up from his chair and turns to leave. His goodnight wish receives no reply, but he isn't offended. On his way out he picks up his empty plate to take it to the kitchen.

'Happy birthday, Eren.'

At the unexpected sound of Levi's voice, Eren pauses once more. However he doesn't turn around.

'Thank you, sir,' he replies and then finally leaves the mess hall, smiling.

* * *

_**Notes:**__ I felt the need to write and publish something on my birthday, however I got distracted and so I'm a day late. But it's not like anyone cares, right? Also, there's no point or logic to this stupid oneshot. And one day I might be able to come up with a scenario where they actually kiss, because that's what I actually want them to do. (Probably that will happen before I figure out how you write a story in present tense. I forgot the stuff I learned about the use of progressive in school - or so it seems to me. orz )_  
_As a last thing I would like to note that it was Levi's idea to get Armin and Mikasa over for Eren's birthday and that's why he's asking Eren for his day, because he cares for him more than he would probably ever admit. It was basically his secret birthday present. *sobs*stupididiotswhydoIshipyousomuch*sobs* (And this is the reason why the notes are at the end, because I didn't want to take anything away beforehand.)_


End file.
